Ferrari's new Japan-only J50 special is sexy-retro-futuristic

To celebrate the brand’s 50th anniversary in Japan, Ferrari’s building ten examples of a special edition J50 targa roadster, a car that apparently may point to Ferrari’s future design language.

The J50 is based on a Ferrari 488 Spider but has been completely rebodied and gets 20 additional horsepower, the Italian automaker explained in a press release. Ferrari’s Special Projects department will work with all 10 customers to spec the car to taste.

“The bodywork is all new and heralds a radically futuristic design language,” Ferrari writes, suggesting this sleek, more-horizontal look may show up on other upcoming cars.

It’s also, paradoxically, more than a little retro, with a thick black beltline that hearkens back to the brand’s Barchetta models of the ’70s and ’80s; and a “helmet-visor”-type windshield evocative of Ferrari’s ’50s race cars.

Specially crafted 20-inch forged wheels help put the now-680 horsepower of the J50 to the ground, and a smoked polycarbonate cover shows off the engine making all that motivation happen.

Eight years after it was discontinued, a brand-new Honda S2000 showed up in the sales stats for the automaker’s Australian subsidiary this past November. No data entry error, the 2007 sports car was apparently a showroom model never registered until it was just now sold to a collector. (via CarAdvice.com())

Nissan is putting its autonomous LEAF test vehicles to work as driverless industrial transport vehicles, towing 30 just-finished cars at a time across its Oppama factory’s campus. The self-driving electric cars make about five trips daily. (via Automotive News)

If you haven’t already caught Ken Block, the Captain of Sideways, showing Matt LeBlanc around London in his Hoonigan Mustang on Top Gear, well, the producers just released an extended cut of the clip—now with fewer jokes and more drifting Mustang! (Top Gear via YouTube)